las felicidades

yesterday morning my family and i, as well as their cousins who live next door, woke up at 5 and walked across town with a myriad of instruments to play a sonata for their cousin who was turning 15. its typical to wake up the birthday girl early in the morning with a few songs played by family members. there were probably 10 of us and we played quite a few traditional songs. it was pretty fun. afterwards i had to skip breakfast to run back to the house to finish about an hours worth of homework before class started.

everyday about halfway through class we have a 20 minute break for coffe, tea, bread, etc. but yesterday about 5 students 5 teachers and i carried baskets full of food and other christmas gifts that the teachers had recently put together for poor families in the area. its amazing because in actuality, everyone in san pedro is poor, except for the tourists that is. i was talking to two guys on the rocks today at the water and they told me that the normal wage for most jobs in san pedro is about 30 quetzales per day, as they are not payed by hour. this works out to only 4 dollars, which is absolutely ridiculous. i couldnt figure out why shit is so cheap here and now i understand. everyone is pretty damn poor.

but anyway, we took these baskets that the teachers had so generously donated to some of the poorest families in the area. my teacher and i carried ours up the hill to an old family, to whom he gave his, and a family without a father, to whom i gave mine. it was a pretty shocking experience. i had obviously seen pictures of people living in extreme poverty before but never experienced it in real life. the mother was probably no more than 26 and had a few kids. they live in a house with a dirt floor and very very few possessions. it was obvious that they rarely got to each much so i was glad that the majority of the gifts were fruits and vegetables and pasta. when i gave her the basket, she thanked me and began speaking to my teacher in Tz´utujil, the mayan dialect spoken here. as she spoke her eyes welled up with tears. as they switched in between spanish and ts´utujil, i could tell that she was just thanking him and explaining her situation. i cant imagine how hard it must be for a single mother to feed herself and three kids on $4 a day. before we left, she gave me a hug and thanked me about 10 times. i have never seen someone so grateful for something so little. it really helps put a lot in perspective.

after we delivered the baskets, my teacher showed me his house and introduced me to his family. they were all wonderful and there was a great view from his roof. again, i was pretty surprised as to how the people here prioritize their possessions. they had a pretty large, new tv and cd player, but were also prety poor and didnt have any furniture in their living room nor a refrigerator.

later on i met up with marvin and fer, the two brothers that ive written about. we walked to the water and went swimming and then returned to my neighborhood to play som basketball. we had only been playing for about half and hour when a bunch of guys showed up and started a small soccer tournament. marvin, fer, and i joined two other dudes to form a team - there were 5 or 6 teams of 5 and we played for a couple of hours before we had to leave. afterwards we all went to the center of town because they had to play some music on a radio show. they invited me to play but i didnt know any of their songs and decided to help by holding microphones instead. at the end of their hour set the radioshow host asked if i wanted to say a few words and i nervously, and probably in absolutely awful spanish because i wasnt expecting it, wished listeners a merry christmas,explained why i am here, and talked a little about my friends music.

we all went out to dinner after the show and rode around town a bit on their motorcycle. it was a pretty damn good day.

today was great too. i woke up kind of early in the morning and met a couple other students and a teacher at the school to walk to the beach. we all rented kayaks, paid for by the school, and rowed about a mile down the lake to a beautiful beach. the water was amazing and a bunch of people were out swimming.

it took about 3 hours in total and by the time we got back i had to go to a family reunion lunch to celebrate an upcoming wedding. there were quite a few people there, all helping make some amazing food. i washed dishes and got to eat great guatemalan food for free. good deal.

i love this picture of this woman handing over a crab.

i went for another walk after lunch and returned to my favorite spot to read. i returned to the fiesta a few hours later for dinner, which was great. all of the women had spend all day making tamales. they were amazing. they also made this huge vat of a hot fruit drink traditionally made at christmas time. it had coconut, pineapple, melon, papaya, rum, etc., etc. my mother here is going to give me the recipe tomorrow becuase i told her i would love to make it when i get back. im sure it wont be as good as theirs, but ill try.

im having an amazing time here. i cant believe its already been a week. time passes much faster here - every day is tranquil and peaceful and they just fly by.

if i finished my studies and learned an adequate amount of spanish in three weeks, i was thinking about trying to go to cuba for a week but i checked the flights today and theyre all ridiculously expensive. oh well. maybe next time.

hope all is well up north. i think of you all constantly.

love and peace